French President Emmanuel Macron said today that Europe needs allies but cannot choose them, in a speech in The Hague that was interrupted by activists holding a placard branding him a “President of violence”.
“We want to be open, we need allies, we want good friends, we want partners. But we want to be in a position to be able to choose them, not to depend on them”, said Macron, at an event organized in The Hague by the Nexus Institute, an institution dedicated to the study of European cultural heritage.
Macron’s phrase is being interpreted by several analysts as a reference to the way in which the United States is confronting the Chinese regime on the Taiwan issue, on which the French President prefers to demarcate himself.
The French head of state made no specific reference to the numerous criticisms he has received for his alleged change of position on Taiwan, conveyed in an interview published on Sunday after his visit to China.
In that interview, Macron defended that the European Union (EU) should have its own position on the conflict between China and Taiwan, not becoming dependent on the position adopted by the United States, thus breaking with the transatlantic alignment on this diplomatically delicate issue.
But Macron’s visit to the Netherlands is also being dominated by criticism of his social security reform in France.
As he began his speech, Macron was interrupted by two onlookers who shouted “Where is French democracy?” and recalled that “there are millions of protesters in the French streets”, while displaying a banner that read “President of violence and hypocrisy”.
Macron – who has been heavily criticized for the way he changed the retirement age in France, avoiding taking the proposal to a vote in Parliament – took the opportunity to respond that the French would be “less angry” with his policy if they looked at the retirement age in another countries, “which is well above the age of 64” now imposed by his presidency.
Thousands of French people have demonstrated in recent weeks in several cities to demand the removal of the law that raises the minimum retirement age from 62 to 64 years.
Macron is on an official visit to The Hague, the first by a French head of state to the Netherlands in 23 years.
Emmanuel and his wife, Briggite Macron, remain today and Wednesday in the Netherlands at the invitation of King Willem-Alexander, who received the couple with a ceremony in Amsterdam.
Paris and The Hague have often disagreed on EU financial matters, with the Netherlands generally siding with Germany, namely in criticizing the French Government’s excessive spending.
